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The “Coding” Has Begun

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I managed to get test programs working using the openFramework and found a suitable one to use as a template, (imageLoaderExample). Although the way it needs to be set up is a little fiddly, and although I can’t yet use it in my own directory structure, I was able to create a new project based on that sample.

The next step was to draw the iso cube and I thought that would be a simple matter of:

﻿ isoCube.loadImage(“images/cube64x64.png”);

﻿For some reason, I wasn’t able to draw this with transparency, despite the sample program clearly being able to draw with transparency. So I checked the image format. Turns out it wasn’t able to handle an indexed PNG’s transparency, but was fine with an 8bpc transparency. With that addressed, everything worked fine and I am now drawing iso cubes on the screen and the whole block of 64 iso cubes of 64 by 64 pixels is dancing to a sine wave.

I moved a few other things around and it was all surprisingly easy. I never really forgot C++. I think I was amongst the first game programmers in the UK to use it, when people were still thinking the idea of using C for a game was radical. I bought Walter Bright‘s C++, which was pretty decent. I was influenced by two factors, first, that David was using the C compiler, back when they were still “Zorland” and second, the price, Zortech C++ was £99. Amazing value and I did a lot of code using that compiler all the way up to the mid 90s. So I love C++ and am looking forward to using it in, well, not quite anger, more like nostalgic fondness.